Local Lexington businesses denounce Red Hen owner Stephanie Wilkinson

On Friday night, June 23, 2018, The Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, VA, became infamous when its co-owner Stephanie Wilkinson — who is also the director of Main Street Lexington, a civic organization that promotes the city’s businesses — booted out White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, who was accompanied by her in-laws.

Wilkinson claims that her restaurant employees objected to Sanders’ presence because of President Trump’s no-transgenders-in-the-US-military policy and his “immigration policy” determination to actually implement federal laws on illegal border-crossing.

Note: Duncan Richter, 51, is Wilkinson’s domestic partner and a philosophy professor at Virginia Military Institute.

The blow back from Lexington against Wilkinson was swift.

Mere hours after Wilkinson kicked Sanders & Co. out of The Red Hen, Historic Downtown Lexington Virginia (HDLV) posted this on their Facebook page (Note the Facebook page is no longer available to the public, but the posts are preserved on Conservative Tree House, aka The Last Refuge):

Followed by these messages on HDLV’s Facebook page, denouncing Wilkinson’s behavior: